Cars and Vans 4U Ltd Question Setters Trophy

Cars and Vans 4U Ltd are a family run car brokerage on Hulley Road in Macclesfield and they (in the shape of the head honcho Allan Sherratt) very kindly sponsor our trophy for the "best questions" set during the season. They can be contacted via http://www.carsandvans4u.co.uk/index.html

Thank you Allan for putting up the trophy.

Now we have had 5 weeks worth, the latest scores - compiled from various sources which take into account entertainment value, difficulty and balance - are attached here.

Thanks to Haydn Thompson from the Ox-fford 'C' for his efforts in this regard.

Week 5...

Generally a high scoring week and lots of good scores on show in all 3 Leagues.

The Principals are currently top of the A League shop after a 177 - 155 win over the Dolphin in comfortably the highest scoring aggregate game of the night - Alan Levitt and Graham Bailey both top scoring with 45 each for the Principals. The Ox-fford just had enough legs to get by the Dolphin Dragons in a very close fought and entertaining game. The Church House Bollington tried to redefine the idea of a close game in beating the New Castle by 1 point to give themselves their first win of the season. Excellent scores all round in that game - Rick Davis and Shauna Barstow scoring each getting 36 for the Church House and New Castle respectively.

Just as tight in the B League where the Waters Green Wonderers won the top of the table clash with the British Flag by just 3 points, 146 - 143. Wendy Brown top scored for the Wonderers with 33 whilst Nick Peck scored a season's best 30. The Lamb Inn and the Harrington Academicals occupy third and fourth after another close game just edged by the Lamb. Paul Griffiths and Simon Rumsey for the Lamb along with Rob Parkin and Dave Partington from the Academicals all had season's best scores. The Baths Hotel and the Three Crowns were the winners of the other games.

The Knot Inn continue to head the C League after another very impressive win against the always tough to beat (and reigning Plate Champions) Puss Artists. The Knot's mighty score of 163 included another 42 form Brian "Mr Consistency" Bogie and 39 from Derek Goldstraw. The Albion stay second - and are still unbeaten - after a 133 - 106 win against the Waters Green Rams (another excellent 30 from Adum Carr for the Rams). The Chester Road Tavern just beat the Sutton Church House by 7 points whilst the Prince of Wales were more comfortable against the Park Tavern in winning 140 - 110 including 36 from Tim Hayes.

News & Views - Week 5

Leonardo..?...shurely shome mishtake!

A generally very well received set of questions this week - thanks are due to the Ox-fford 'C'. They included an excellent picture round of people from the artistic world who were either writers, painters or composers (although I failed to spot a rather frightening looking Edward Elgar...)

This picture was Question 2 and the given answer was that renowned Italian smarty pants Leonardo da Vinci. Anyone who has played the Albion however will know that this is clearly Mr Paul Beard, long-time stalwart of this League! I am a trained observer of many years standing, no one can convince me otherwise...

Cup & Plate - Next Round Draw...

FA Cup? Mickey Mouse competition...the real excitement kicks in here...

The Cup and Plate will progress as follows this year:-

The 10 losers of the below games in Round 1 go into the Plate whilst the 10 winners are joined by the 6 teams who had “byes” or set / asked questions last week to make up the last 16 for the Cup.

The 10 teams in the Plate have all played and lost one game and 2 of those teams have been drawn to set questions for the next round, along with a further 4 teams to act as Question Masters for all the games.

Just two of the 10 teams in the Plate need to be eliminated to leave us with the last 8 next time, so there are just 2 games between the remaining 4 teams in Plate Round 1.

After the next round we will be left with 8 teams in the Cup and 8 in the Plate.

Confused...you will be...here is the bottom line...

Cup – Round 2

New Castle v Dolphin Dragons
Cock Inn v Puss Artists
British Flag v Church House Bollington
Waters Green Wonderers v Harrington ‘B’
Dolphin v George & Dragon
Park Tavern v Ox-fford
Harrington Academicals v Three Crowns
Ox-fford ‘C’ v Plough Taverners

Plate – Round 1

Lamb Inn v Knot Inn
Chester Road Tavern v Albion


These games will be played on 22/01/2008.

Questions will be set by the Prince of Wales and the Waters Green Rams who will supply 3 Question Masters each.

The Principals, the Castle, the Sutton Church House and the Baths Hotel will assist with asking questions. These teams will provide 1 Question Master each.

Any other team not mentioned has the night off.

Questions for the Quarter Finals of the Cup and Plate will be set by 2 of the losing teams from the above games. A draw will be made after the above games have been played.

The Cup - Round 1 Results...

Another Round of titanic struggles produced the above results last Tuesday...

Week 4...

A generally low scoring week this time around with more "personal worsts" than "personal bests" for the season on view.

The odd question has created a bit of ongoing debate - were bagpipes really invented in Iran??? Whilst most people only want to know where the weeping, wailing instruments of tedium were invented so that they can avoid going there, pinning the actual location of their origin is a bit tricky. Various academic sources I have checked since (how sad is that?) all fail to agree on their place of birth. I will simply kick anyone I now see playing them just to make myself feel better for not knowing the answer...

More reasonably, the Ox-fford 'C' head the A League despite their narrow loss to their rivals from across the room, the Ox-fford. The A League indeed had three local derbies this week with the Dolphin beating the Dolphin Dragons with the help of another excellent 45 from Alan Hodgson who has been very consistent this season. The New Castle also got the better of the Castle to maintain their 100% start to life in the A League - most impressive.

The B League sees the British Flag, Waters Green Wonderers and Harrington Academicals heading the table, all of whom have graced the top division in recent years. High scores were thin on the ground but Steve Berwick's 33 for the Wonderers was a notable exception.

Newcomers the Knot Inn head the C League with Brian Bogie top scoring in the League again with 42 - he has clearly done this sort of thing before!

The Puss Artists and the Albion both kept their unbeaten records going with good wins, whilst the Park Tavern got their season going with their first win.

News & Views - Week 4

This Week...The Cup!

Never mind about these two-bit round robin knockout competitions taking place in sports we invented and have forgotten how to play, (I exclude Wayne Bridge from this - he never knew to start with) the REAL excitement starts this coming Tuesday with Round 1 of the Macclesfield Quiz League Cup competition.

The draw appears below and the results - together with all the results and comment from last week - will appear here before you know it, or at the very worst by next weekend...

Questions for Tuesday night are being set by the British Flag and the Cock Inn.

The George & Dragon, Park Tavern, New Castle and the Harrington ‘B’ all have "byes".

The British Flag and the Cock Inn will supply 3 Question Masters each to cover the games to be played.

The other 4 teams will provide 1 further Question Master each to complete the 10 games.

The games are as follows: -


Cup – Round 1

Sutton Church House v Waters Green Wonderers
Ox-fford v Albion
Church House Bollington v Baths Hotel
Puss Artists v Lamb Inn
Dolphin v Prince of Wales
Plough Taverners v Knot Inn
Waters Green Rams v Three Crowns
Castle v Harrington Academicals
Chester Road Tavern v Ox-fford ‘C’
Principals v Dolphin Dragons


Questions for Round 2 of the Cup and Plate will be set by 2 of the losing teams from the above games. A draw will be made after the above games have been played.

Week 3...

Of the 11 games this week, 7 were won by teams who went first in the Specialist Round, with the remaining 4 won by teams going the other way around.

The Ox-fford 'C' are off to a flyer in the A League and just beat the previously undefeated Principals last Tuesday in a very closely fought contest. The Dolphin racked up a mightily impressive 190 points - which must be close to a record, I must try and find out - with Alan Hodgson and Peter McBride both chipping in with 45 each and Alan Rudden and Derek Owen scoring an excellent 30 and 27 respectively. The Dolphin Dragons scored their first win of the campaign by beating the Castle with a similar good all-round scoring effort, Liz Horrocks and Dave Turner joint top scoring with 33 each.

The B League looks like providing an excellent contest this year with the early pace being set by the British Flag, Waters Green Wonderers and Harrington Academicals who all remain unbeaten, the Flag being top by dint of having played 1 game more so far. All the other teams in the League are currently taking points off each other and it really looks like (cliche alert here) that any team can beat any other team on any given day. Special mention this week to Phil Davies from the Plough Taverners for an excellent individual 42.

The Knot Inn continue with their very impressive start to life in this lark and top the C League on "points scored", having accumulated 7 points more than the Sutton Church House who lost by just 3 points in the closest game of the week against the Albion. The Puss Artists and Albion are looming in the Knot's rear view mirror though with both those teams still unbeaten.

Knot Inn Captain Brian Bogie top scored in the C League this week with another 42.

News & Views - Week 3

Have you seen these men (and woman)..?

Bringing new meaning to the phrase "Care in the Community", the team known only as the Waters Green Wonderers are pictured here in their natural Tuesday night habitat. Some of them have been playing in this Quiz League since Queen Victoria was considered a bit newfangled. Week in, week out they turn up, drink, eat and answer daft questions - broadly speaking in that order of priority.

Gentlemen (and lady), you are mainstays of the whole dodgy edifice and we salute you.

(left-right = Bob Langstaff, Nick Peck, Jon Thompson, Wendy Brown)

Week 3 in (some) pictures...

As your correspondent didn't have a game this Tuesday (13th November), he decided to watch (I know, I know, I should have better things to do) the A League clash between the Principals and the Ox-fford 'C'.

A titanic struggle ensued with the 'C' just emerging victorious by 9 points. More on this later, but here are the protagonists in all their Technicolour glory...

Top picture - Question Master Mr Pete Dykstra (wondering if a third glass might help...)

Middle - Ox-fford 'C' (left-right = Tim Massey, Caroline Massey, Alice Walker, Haydn Thompson)

Bottom - Principals (left-right = Lesley Bailey (shy), Alan Gilday, Graham Bailey, Alan Levitt)

Week 2...

Of the 11 games this week, 8 were won by teams who went first in the Specialist Round, with the remaining 3 won by teams going the other way around.

The C League especially had some very close games with 3 of the 4 being won by only 1, 3 and 4 points respectively.

Check out all the questions this and every week via the link at Nick's Quiz Site - http://nicksquiz.blogspot.com/

This week's highlight - see if your definition of "Disco" is the same as Tomo's!

Only kidding Tomo, it was a great round, I just got the Disco question wrong!!!

In fact only one person in the entire League got that question right for 3 points. Take the floor and do a turn in the honorary white suit please, Alan Levitt of the Principals.

News & Views - Week 2

The Cup - Round 1 Draw

The draw has now been made for Round 1 of the Cup, which will be played on 27/11/2007.

The 26 teams in the League are all playing and there are no additional teams this year. As we have 26 teams, the format this season is similar to those of recent years.

Questions for the night will be set by the British Flag and the Cock Inn.

The 4 teams with “byes” are George & Dragon, Park Tavern, New Castle and the Harrington ‘B’.

The British Flag and the Cock Inn will supply 3 Question Masters each to cover the games to be played.

The other 4 teams – George & Dragon, Park Tavern, New Castle & the Harrington ‘B’ – will provide 1 further Question Master each to complete the 10 games.

Please decide beforehand who is going so we don’t have to call anyone on the night.

The games are as follows: -



Sutton Church House v Waters Green Wonderers
Ox-fford v Albion
Church House Bollington v Baths Hotel
Puss Artists v Lamb Inn
Dolphin v Prince of Wales
Plough Taverners v Knot Inn
Waters Green Rams v Three Crowns
Castle v Harrington Academicals
Chester Road Tavern v Ox-fford ‘C’
Principals v Dolphin Dragons



Questions for Round 2 of the Cup and Plate will be set by 2 of the losing teams from the above games. A draw will be made after the above games have been played.

News & Views - Week 1

The Beginning...

This is the start of the Macclesfield Quiz League records blog - set up to record the scores, results and history of Macclesfield Quiz League, kindly sponsored by AstraZeneca. Now the wider world can see what happens in this small - but crucial - corner of East Cheshire. Enjoy...